Guns N' Roses 'vigorously contests' lawsuit

Indie labels claim group used songs without permission

LONDON -- Guns N' Roses manager Irving Azoff has said the band "vigorously contests" claims that it used portions of two songs by a German musician on their last album "Chinese Democracy."

Guns N' Roses and Interscope-Geffen A&M were sued by British label Independiente and the U.S. arm of Domino Recording Company, who own the licensing rights to songs by German electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss.

According to the lawsuit filed Friday, which is seeking $1 million in damages, Axl Rose and Guns N' Roses band members and album producers copied portions of two of Schnauss' songs -- "Wherever You Are" and "A Strangely Isolated Place" - for the track "Riad N' the Bedouins."

Azoff has said the band "vigorously contests these claims and intends to respond accordingly," in a statement.

The rest of the statement reads: "The band believed when the record came out and still believes that there are no unauthorized samples on the track. The snippets of 'ambient noise' in question were provided by a member of the album's production team who has assured us that these few seconds of sound were obtained legitimately. Artists these days can't read the minds of those they collaborate with and therefore are unfortunately vulnerable to claims like this one. While the band resents the implication that they would ever use another artist's work improperly and are assessing possible counterclaims, they are confident this situation will be satisfactorily resolved."

"Chinese Democracy," the band's first new album of original material in 17 years, was released last November.

Besides Rose, who is the only original member in the band, the other current and former band members named in the suit include guitarist Brian "Buckethead" Carroll, bassist Tommy Stinson, and Robin Finck, who currently plays lead guitar with rock act Nine Inch Nails.